What Redeems a Monster
by SilyaBeeodess
Summary: Sequel to "What Makes a Monster," set after the events of "Monsters Inc." Left in the human world, Randall must find a way to return home undetected by both the CDA and his former partner and boss, Waternoose, in an attempt to rebuild his life. However, when shadows of the past meet the sins of the present, he's left struggling to turn his fate around.
1. Old Faces

Randall felt expelled.

From the monster world, from the human world, from all place in reality. A part of his mind flashbacked to when he last saw Tani—disappearing behind the door to her child during their freshman exams, just before the connection between worlds was severed and he lost her. It had been almost a decade since then: There was no way she could even still be alive, not if she'd been in the human world for all this time. But he could see her sitting in front of him, like an apparition from a fever dream.

The black turtleneck that had been her signature look in college was gone, replaced with a stained, oversized tank. Her scales weren't as vibrant as they used to be. Her grass-like hair was just a little longer than it used to be, unkempt from the static of the ruffled pile of sheets. She was a little bigger than she used to be, the essence of childhood youth gone and replaced with the lithe elegance of womanhood.

Time couldn't destroy the vision of her from his memory, but it did seem to distort it. This… was the last thing he needed that day. This wasn't happening: He had been hit one too many times over the head and now he was seeing things! This wasn't Tani staring back at him, matching his own hurt, stupefied expression—this was pulled from his own mind from his injuries and lack of sleep! That had to be it!

A pair of hands suddenly thrust forward, catching him by the jaw. Randall was frozen, his eyes widened in panic as the apparition moved closer and pulled his face toward them. But for an apparition—and one of a reptile at that—that was something about its touch that was so familiar that it almost seemed warm. Its grip was firm, but careful not to run its elongated claws too roughly against his flesh as they inspected every detail of his face. Twin pools of aquamarine seemed to drown him as they bore into his own, emerald irises. They were so close that he could feel its breath tickle against him as it gave a shaky exhale.

"It's you…" Their words came out as a choked whisper and soon the doe-like shock in their gaze began to cloud over with unshed tears. "Randy, it's you…"

He then felt them bury their face against his chest, their arms sliding down his form until they clung to his shoulders. He felt hot tears course down his scales as they began to shiver and keen against him, an almost childlike wail pouring from their mouth as they held onto him with a desperate grasp.

"I never thought I'd see you again! I-I never thought I'd see _anyone_ again…"

A hardened lump has formed in his throat. He couldn't speak. For a while, he couldn't even move, but eventually—by some force deep inside him—he managed it. Somehow, with his hands trembling more than he had ever known, he enveloped the apparition in his arms. As soon as he felt the elegant curve of her spine with his own touch, as soon as he held her in that long forgotten embrace, a feeling of possession took hold of his heart and demanded that he never let go. Even if none of this was real, he wanted to stay in that dream-like trance for as long as he possibly could.

And so they did, until exhaustion and the weight of his injuries finally dragged him into the abyss of unconsciousness.

* * *

 _So fast and so suddenly, everything had been ruined! Her child waking up before she could even begin her scare, the way home flickering in and out of existence, the panic of Randall and her classmates, the panic that took over_ her _when everything fell apart… There was no way she could manage it! She was too afraid and too flustered to manage to create any kind of illusion—whether just to save herself or frighten her child!_

 _And, oh, the kid did scream at the sight of her alright! Just not in the way Tani had wanted, bawling at the sight of her! Holding her hands before her in an attempt to pacify it, she backed herself into a corner. She tripped, toppling over a dollhouse and into a pile of stuffed animals, letting out her own panicked cry at the contamination. She shot a glance back in the direction of the door, fervently begging in silence for the connection to return, but no such luck. So, pouncing on all fours, she made a mad dash for the window._

 _Not only was it locked tight, but they were on the third floor of the building: Even if she shattered it, there was no guarantee of a safe landing. From the well paved streets below, they also seemed to be in a city, so any kind of injury that set her back could very well slow her down if—or when—any humans gave chase._

 _Tani hissed with surprise as a pillow struck her in the side, bracing her arm to cover her face even as she glanced at her attacker, the child. The failed scare and continued delay as she fought for a way to escape had made it brave enough to go on the offense. Standing in its bed, it readied for another throw._

 _The lights in the hallway had turned on. Footsteps were coming toward the bedroom. The reptile snapped her gaze back to the closet door one final time, but much to her fear the way home remained shut. She could feel her heart rampaging in her chest, but with no way out there was only one thing she could do. She tried to remember as much information as she could on her child: A five year-old girl afraid of the dark and the Boogeyman, with an older brother that apparently terrorized her enough himself. Dodging the next throw, Tani braced her still racing heart as she had stared down the bedroom door, inwardly preparing herself so she wouldn't mess up on exuding the correct pheromones._

 _In one way or another, all scarers had to know how to improvise, be it because of a child waking up too soon or because they walked into a sleepover. Given it was her first, actual scare, she felt she pulled off the improvisation fairly well—that is, if it hadn't been for the fact that the older boy had caught her by the tail after she had charged past him when finishing the scare. The action had terrified her so much that she barely remembered tossing him away from her and sliding down the stairwell, bounding for the way out and somehow managing with trembling hands to unlock the front door with a barrage of screaming voices following her._

 _That night, she washed herself in a drainage ditch and tried her best to decontaminate herself with the interior of her turtleneck. Even still, she had little hopes for her condition. Not only had she fallen amid a cluster of toxic toys and been struck, her child's sibling had actually_ touched _her—and he was still very much a child himself. How long did it take for the toxicity to set in? What would it do to her?_

 _But, of course, the answer had been 'nothing.' Except for remaining half-starved and exhausted, she felt fine and there were no visible signs of the toxicity either._

 _It took her days—she was hungry, tired, bruised, and had lost her turtleneck—but Tani had eventually managed to make it back to the monster world. Once and only once. With her mom as a Fear Scout, she had known a few things about the human world outside of what her classes had prepared her for: With her door damaged, she'd need to find another one that led back home. The problem was she had no idea which children had scarers and which scarers were members of which companies. Nevertheless, she was desperate enough that any door would do. Not only for her own sake of returning, but also to share the news of the absent 'toxicity.' Maybe monsterkind had evolved beyond it. Maybe they had come across a type of human child that didn't exude toxins the same as others. Or maybe she was just lucky, but either way, it was important to get the word out as soon as she could: That sort of information could forward the Scaring Industry more than any other advancement in the field had in a century!_

 _That was what Tani had thought anyway. The monsters she came across—still far from Monstropolis, from Monsters University, and from home—thought otherwise. Like a few other MIA cases had been in the past that had drawn to her conclusion the very same way, Tani wasn't the sort to keep her mouth shut about it though._

 _She learned soon enough that Scarers were meant to work in the dark in more than one way, just before she had been forced back into the human world._


	2. Long-kept Secrets

The sun's rays blazing through the darkened, tainted windows of the van stirred Randal from sleep. As expected, everything hurt, although at first he could hardly remember why. It took time for his mind to catch up to his aching body and when it did it brought his blood to a boil. He had been thrust out of the monster world by Wazowski, Sullivan, and that terror of a child! He had been beaten and forced to run into hiding to lick his wounds. And he—!

His eyes flew open and he cringed in the mess of blankets that made up the bedding of the otherwise empty back of the vehicle. Tani—he found Tani! But he froze with a moment's doubt… He had seen her, didn't he? That is, if he hadn't actually dreamed it all: He still didn't know. The harsh course of time would never make him forget that voice or face, but it had filled him with a certainty that he would never hear or see any sign of her again. And if, even for a second, he placed some ill-conceived hope on an illusion… He couldn't. He had hardened his heart so much that if any part of it were to crack it would shatter him completely.

But as he lifted a hand to his pounding skull and rose up, his tail brushed against the wad of fabric beside him to evoke a quiet murmur from the pile and instantly he felt a mixed wave of bittersweet joy, relief, and uncertainty. Joy, of course, because he really did have Tani back after all this time of thinking she was as good as dead; relief, because it wasn't just an illusion—she was really there, lying at his side; and uncertainty, because he had no idea what it all meant or where either of them would go from here.

Gently, he brushed the back of his hand against the side of her face, a sad smile tugging at his mouth. _Look at us,_ he said in his mind, _we've both grown-up…_ The decade apart had taken its toll on both of them, from the duller look to their scales to the mature ting to their voices replacing the zealousness of youth. For him, the years had meant pouring all that he was into his work: And for her…? He had no idea. He knew that there were banished monsters who managed to get by in the human world—others back home would use the legends that followed after them to their advantage in scares—but it still seemed like a miracle to him that Tani was alright, and an even bigger miracle that he stumbled upon her.

Eventually, the subconscious caresses dragged the female reptile out of sleep. Her eyes fluttering open, she raised her gaze from the blankets to Randall. Similar to him, it took a second for her to gather her wits, but a moment after she shoved herself up to embrace him by the waist. Unlike the night before, there was no hesitation as he returned the affection. Beyond immediate family, physical contact had become an overall foreign entity to him, but the feel of her touch carved through the decade-long barriers he had put around himself.

"It wasn't a dream," she murmured against him with teary eyes, "It's really you…"

"Yeah, it's me…" he choked, his lower arms hugging her close. The events of the night before seemed to repeat. This time, however, the initial shock had ebbed enough to allow him to think clearly. He continued to hold her, but inevitably pulled her back to look her in the eyes with a careful gaze, "But what about you?! _Ten years_ , Tani—you've been here for nearly ten years! What are you doing here? Didn't you ever try coming back to our world?" Gripping her by the shoulders, he had to restrain his emotions to keep his fingers from digging into her flesh. "Tani… what happened to you?"

Scaled brows furrowing, she stared back at him for the longest while, then—sitting up with her legs beneath her—she lifted a hand to his face. He winced. Her tender examination of his wounds felt like a hammer driving into his skull. Her faint, sympathetic grin countered the pained, slight draw of his mouth. "Looks like you've got your own story to share," she lightly quipped, fingers lowering to graze his cheek in doting affection. One of his upper hands rose to overlap her own, but the moment lasted all too briefly. She shuffled away from him to sort through the mess of the decrepit van, "Let's just see if we can get you patched up first."

Randall glanced around the van's interior as he waited. He could take it in better than previously with the late-morning light filtering through the windows. Save for two in the very front of the vehicle, the rest of the seats had been removed—the space instead filled by the mattress and blanket pile. The mess aside, they added cushion to the otherwise hard, worn floor. There were a few shirts; wrinkled, but neatly folded in the passenger's seat, most of them similar to the large tank that Tani wore in that none of them were new and all of them would've made a better tent for her than wardrobe. There were also plastic bags and cardboard boxes loaded with all kinds of miscellaneous things: Yellowed books with worn covers and lose bindings, old newspapers and magazines, plastic bottles filled with swamp water, chipped plates and plastic dinnerware, odd trinkets from fishing lures to game pieces, sealed containers of who knew what else—all things she had likely found while rummaging through the dump. Whatever she had been doing for all this time, she had managed to create a decent, 'do-it-yourself' bunker for her to survive in.

Contrarily to all of the junk that surrounded them, the mixed-matched first aid kit she plucked out from the mess looked to be in pretty decent condition: There was no fear of getting an infection from a use bandage. With a water bottle in one hand, she took a mason jar containing an olive-colored salve in the other and sniffed at it. He couldn't tell what the concoction was, but he imagined it to be something of her own creation rather than a certified medicine. That… was actually probably for the best. Even if humans weren't actually toxic to them, that didn't mean that their biologies were similarly enough for their remedies to work: If anything, given the diverse biology of monsters and how expansive the biology and medical fields were in their world as a result, it likely wouldn't have. He could trust her experimental attempt a lot more than whatever was the 'best' a human medic could offer.

With everything gathered, she returned to his side and began to clean his wounds. He grit his teeth together from the fierce sting that dug through his flesh. When she next applied the salve, it felt like liquid fire before it caught the air and turned into a soothing, icy chill. His head, shoulders, and upper back had taken the brunt of trauma when he had been attacked. There were a few cuts from where the edges of the shovel had raked him. Mostly though, he was just beaten and battered: He hopped that was the case, anyway. He could endure a lot, but no amount of tolerance to pain could cross out the possibility of a concussion or some other internal damage. Maybe that _was_ the case, given how it was one of the last things on his mind. Silence drew on for a long while until he addressed her a second time, "Tani?"

She didn't answer him, avoiding his gaze and focusing her energy into the task at hand.

"Tani," he said one more time, taking her wrist in a firm grasp. She seemed caught off-guard by the action, like she was startled out of a mild trance. A part of him wondered if her time here in the human world dramatically affected her ability to communicate with others. He hoped not, or that it wasn't permanent. Her jarring confidence and free-spirited nature was a part of who she was: He didn't want to think that that part of her might be lost. Which begged the question all the more, "What happened to you?"

Her expression turned crestfallen, her eyes clouding over with the haze of a distant memory. The seconds passed on languidly until she took a breath, tugged her wrist free, and got back to her task. Then, in a soft, strained voice, she answered, "I _did_ go back to our world, you know. Just once."

Randall felt his throat tighten at the news. In that case, then why did she let everyone think she was missing? Why didn't she come back to Monstropolis or her hometown? Why didn't she let anyone know that she was alright? What about him? Well, maybe at the time she was still furious with him, but what about her family? Her other friends? What about all of the things she talked about for the future: She had wanted to be a scarer as much as he did!

Before he could ask any of that though, she continued, "It wasn't for very long." Her shoulders lifted into a faint shrug as she shook her head, "It took me longer to find a working door to get back than it did before I found myself here with the humans again. When I went back though, I didn't end up anywhere near Monstropolis: I didn't recognize the company and I never even got out of the scare factory."

The more Tani explained, the more baffled he was by her story. She continued to spread the salve on his wounds. He continued to listen.

"There was this one kid that always left their bedroom window open at night. Thanks to that, I heard the screams and was able to sneak in without a problem when his scarer showed up the next night. I didn't think about where I'd end up: I just figured I'd find someone to help me once I was back in the monster world. So I charged through the door and ended up finding myself standing on a scare floor right in the middle of their afternoon shift.

"It didn't take long before someone noticed that I didn't belong there. Not much to say about that except that they called security: They dragged me off to quarantine, interrogated me, and checked to make sure I wasn't some banished escapee—standard procedure. During the whole mess, their boss showed up and started asking me questions. I didn't think anything about it."

She paused with a heavy sigh. It seemed hard for her to continue, and that she was contemplating whether or not to at all. Once her gaze met his again, however, it was apparent that something in her gave: Not from trust or from desperation, but from a sad, grim acceptance of whatever her situation had become.

"Randall, our entire world thinks that human children are toxic. Scarers and researchers face them every day wondering, in the back of their minds, what'll happen to them if they mess up and get contaminated. But all there's never been anything to worry about in the first place! They're no more toxic than we are…"

He stared long and hard at her. Is that what she had been trying to avoid talking about? He knew about that already. Soon though, he remembered that he was a rare exception: Of course she wouldn't expect him to believe her. He forced a smile, offering the only reassurance he knew to give: He said, "I know."

Her eyes widened and for a brief moment the world appeared still. It was clear that that revelation had a deeper effect on her than what she thought her news would on him. Eventually Tani blinked, lowering her gaze as she shook her head a second time. Her breathing became tight and heavy, like some pressure within her had finally been cut. Bearing that information 'alone' must've felt like the world weighed against her.

She looked half brought to tears as she replied, "You're one of the few who do then. The boss of that scaring company? He knew about it all along too, but he didn't think it was something to share." She clasped the mason jar with both hands as she set it in her lap, "I let him know good and well that I wasn't going to keep quiet about it and… Well, let's just say it didn't make him happy. He took it on himself to banish me through another door without a second thought, and he let me know before that that there would be few people who would listen to me and more people like him if I ever went back."

Her story shook him, a deeply gnarled anger swelling up in his chest the more he thought over it. On one hand, it didn't surprise him: That kind of news would shake the bedrock of the industry, and maybe even that of the entire monster world. He had kept quiet about it himself because it was so unbelievable and he wasn't willing to gamble away his career—and possibly his freedom as a sane citizen—over it. However, it wasn't like Tani to keep quiet about anything. He could only imagine what kind of threats were made if she continued to try and speak out.

When Waternoose had approached him to work on the scream extractor, he thought he had been sharing a secret regarding the lie about human children being toxic as well. Randall had to play along as if he didn't know anything beforehand. Now he wondered, _Did they all know?_ All the heads of the scaring industry and the CDA? If so, they had the entire monster world blind to a massive conspiracy and held the threat of banishment over the heads of innocent people if they ever find some clue of it! They controlled monsters who gave it their all working for them with fear and lies!

It was an outrage in itself, but the added fact that Tani had been made a victim of it made the matter personal. "Did you fight back?" he asked. She had too have, but he wanted to hear it. He wanted to see that there was still a piece of her spunky nature left after everything she'd been through—that for all the damage they caused, they hadn't stripped that part of her away.

It came as a relief when, finally, a spark ignited in her eyes. She smirked in answer, "Like a wild saberhound."

Randall couldn't help himself. He pulled Tani against him for the third time since the previous night. A thousand horrible scenarios had gone through his head whenever he had thought about what might've happened to her. Before they learned the truth, he used to think she could've been overtaken by contaminants. Her kid's parents or some other human could've killed her, or they could've captured her and treated her like a test subject. She could've starved in hiding. The more time had worn on, the more possibilities had filled his head until he had accepted that, whatever the case, he was never going to see her again. He had never been more relieved to be wrong; nevertheless, the knowledge that all of this was the fault of their own kind—among the same sort in their field at that—infuriated him.

Tani was content to stay where she was in his arms, but she also pressed him for his story next. He didn't hesitate to tell her, from the moment she vanished behind the malfunctioned door to his rivalry with Sullivan at Monsters Inc. for the all-time scare record and the place as the company's top scarer. He answered every question she asked, giving her as much information as he could to the things she had missed. The only thing he didn't tell her, keeping one secret to himself, was the plot that had led to him ending up in the human world with her.


	3. Isolated Incidents

It was surreal how young he felt as time passed after Tani finished patching him up. Instead of sitting in a decrepit van, in a swamp, in the middle of the human world, for a moment Randall could pretend that they were reliving their college years. It was summer break and they had rented a van to go to one of those folk concerts that more people attended for the acclaim rather than the actual music. Instead of eating half-done ramen noodles mixed with crayfish and earthworms out of a pair of stained, paper take-out boxes, they were eating a stir-fry bought at one of the event booths. Instead of the chirrup of insects and the clanging of machinery in the distance, he could hear the uproar of a swarm of college students over the thrum of instruments.

And although—not so far beneath the surface—he remained in a constant state of outrage over everything that had happened, trading stories helped lift his spirits. They bounced questions off of each other, piecing together the vastly diverged paths that had led them both here.

"So you were in the big leagues, huh?" Tani asked with a smirk, poking at her food, "That's pretty impressive. I mean, I can't say I'm too surprised though, the way Monsters Inc. filters its scarers."

Oh, if she could've seen how far that was the truth now. Although they still managed to siphon the cream of the crop, the company was so desperate to gather as much scream energy as possible that they weren't at all picky anymore over who they hired. Kids were harder to scare, so more recruits were brought in to try to find any way to get so much as a faint shriek out of them.

He only shrugged though, "Yeah, well MU's connections helped, so I just kept working hard, hoping to break some records." He didn't want to go into too much detail there for two reasons: The risks of bringing up Sullivan by accident or pushing her away if she thought he was just being cocky. The whole reason they had split apart in the first place was because he had acted more like the RORs: He didn't want to widen that rift. "Have you always been here? _Here_ , here?" he questioned, "To be honest… If I ever hoped for the best, I'd have thought you'd have been exploring wherever you could."

"Guilty is charged," she answered with a somewhat awkward grin, "I did wander around for a while—mostly because I didn't know what else to do—but then I started getting curious, you know? You'd be surprised how similar this place is to back home. Got chased around a couple times, might've started a local myth here or there… And I eventually bunkered down here." She pointed a thumb to one of the algae and age stained windows. "I've got all of the junk I can plunder and all the leftovers I can eat."

"Is it really safe here?" he wondered aloud. Tani had clearly laid down some kind of life in the van, but they were _way_ too close to humans for his own comfort. He had only opted to hide out here in the first place because he was close to dropping and there hadn't seemed to be anything else but swampland for miles.

"No human's sniffed me out yet. I think this thing's stuck so far in the ground that they just decided to leave it alone. Besides, we're far enough away from the rest of the junk that no one drops by." She motioned the outside with the bent fork she used, "There _is_ a dog out there, but he's chained up half the time and is fine once he gets used to you."

That made Randall… a little relieved… Not much, but enough that he was able to heave a sigh and relax some of the tension cramped in his sore muscles. As if a newfound hunger took over him, he scooped a few more large bites of his food into his mouth. It was far from fine dining, but it was better than anything he imagined he'd get his hands on in the human world: For what it was, it worked.

"My turn again," Tani rocked forward as she swung her legs out from under her, crossing them together. "What did you do with all your time when you _weren't_ working? Or do you mean to tell that you've lived in the factory for all these years?"

After swallowing, he drew his lips backs into a firm, unamused line. Actually, if they were talking recently, then he practically _had_ been living at Monsters Inc. for years. Building and designing his scream extractor had taken a long while: There had been more than a few long nights where he had accidentally fallen asleep on a steam pipe and woke up the next morning with barely enough time to run to the scare floor—showering in the men's room and eating from snack machines and whatever anyone left in the staff room fridge. Before that though, maybe watching TV? Lots and lots of TV, going to the occasional company picnic as a requirement, and…

"See the family," he said. Granted, it wasn't like he had much of a choice, "My brother works for the company too; his son even sticks around the daycare. So I'll get dragged off some on the weekends for dinner now and then. You spend your whole week with screaming kids and end up leaving with one, it's about all the company you could want."

A sad, distant look on Tani's face made Randall wish he could take back those last words. Even though she smiled still, the pain read in her eyes. He had to get them both back to the monster world. He didn't know what they'd do after that, but maybe Tani could see her own family again and maybe someone would want his technology, even if it meant doing some more under the table work to get it sold. Maybe they could escape somewhere away from the eyes of the CDA or the crooks that ran the scaring companies—giving some time for a little payback too, of course.

"One way or another, we're going back to Monstropolis." Randall stirred his food in thought. "I don't know what it'll take, but I know we're not living out the rest of our lives here."

"No offense, Randall, but we don't know how far this whole thing with the humans goes up," Tani propped her cheek against her hand. "There might not be anywhere we could go if we're on some kind of list. You and me could end up just getting tossed back here at best or locked behind bars at worst."

 _You don't even have a clue how right you are there…_ "It'll take time to come up with a plan," he admitted. More than anything, he still thought it would take time for him to go off the CDA's radar. "But I know more than a few places we could hide out." There were plenty of maintenance shafts, pipelines and tunnels at scaring companies that they could hide out in and all they'd have to worry about was a stray technician or security camera—and he could guide them through those thanks to his camouflaging abilities. The trick would be finding a way back through a door without getting noticed. Again, he could probably make it through alone just fine, but he wasn't going to leave her.

It was as if she could read his mind, "You might be able to vanish on the spot, but the most I can do is release a few pheromones into the air to mess with someone's head for a while—and that's pretty much only on a good day. And you think we could both sneak back to our world even though we'd probably have to, in the _least,_ cross a scare floor mid-operation?"

Rather than give an actual reply, he opted to challenge her back, "Where's the girl who could storm past the tanks at Fear Tech and hold her own against some of the fiercest monsters at MU?"

"Well, it's not hard to be brave against a bully when most bullies aren't really anything more than loud-mouthed cowards."

Inside, a part of him winced at that, but he pressed on, "So what about the guy who threatened you then? Isn't he just another bully?"

She didn't say anything at first, just bringing her take-out box to her mouth to shovel down more of the meal. After a few second's hesitation, she finally murmured through the thin cardboard, "A _very powerful_ bully…" She harshly wiped at her lips once she uncovered them. "Believe me, if I had the chance, I'd hang that guy by the rafters from his tacky and overpriced necktie, but I don't want to end up alone in some underground prison because of it."

He shuffled closer, "You're not alone. Not anymore." But she couldn't meet his gaze. At least, that what he thought at first… Then he followed her eyes downward to find that he had subconsciously reached for her hand, his fingers mildly pressed overtop hers. Embarrassed, he hesitantly withdrew—instead balancing his weight on the limb in a lounging position. "And I know how to get us around once we're inside whatever factory we slip into. Do you think you'd still remember how to make it through the sewer tunnels?"

"Vaguely," she replied.

"We could probably use those to get around the city afterward," he nodded in approval at his own thoughts. He then quipped, "You might even get the chance to scare a few teenagers when we're down there."

She smirked back, "Just like in the good old days, huh?" She turned her gaze back to one of the windows and stared, although it was nearly impossible to see out of it. For the second time, she seemed distant, her mind in another place, another time that seemed completely out of reach. For a moment, she appeared to change before him into something tragically beautiful. Both good and bad memories danced in her eyes, played along the path of her lips as they twitched while she fought to control her emotions. The decade of isolation and pain had clearly worn on her, both body and mind, and yet there was something about the aura around her that seemed immortal: A hardened resilience to not only find a way to live through hardship, but thrive despite it. Like watching a volcanic mountainside bloom again with new life despite how wave after scorching wave tried to devastate it.

"It might work," she whispered, so softly that he didn't really catch it until she repeated the words again, "It might actually work… I just want to see home again."

He didn't know how to reassure her there. Even if they made it back alright, who knew for how long they'd have to lay low. In Tani's case, she was as good as dead to the monster world, but he imagined it'd be a lot harder for himself. If Waternoose had failed to keep their secrets locked tight, then the CDA might've already found the Scream Extractor in the tunnels and had shut down the factory to investigate further. Then they'd likely go to his apartment and tear it apart, searching for whatever they could to incriminate them both. He didn't know whether or not Sullivan or Wazowski would admit to throwing him in the human world—he kind of doubted it, they could still be punished in some way for taking it on themselves to banish him—but that would be the only slim chance he had of the hunt turning away from him. He'd be the target of every curious eye until the chaos blew over and Monstropolis moved on to whatever news followed.

Then there was the question of what would happen if Tani did see her family. Sure, he wanted to take her to them as soon as he could—even if it meant he still kept himself hidden in the meantime—but by her own story and for her own sake it looked like Tanith Hartbrooke would have to _stay_ missing. Would they really be able to keep their secret quiet? He remembered her mother being a well-known individual in the scaring industry too. On the chance she knew more than she let on, would she try to defend her daughter or fight to keep her silence? And nothing good would come out of the reunion if the elderly reptilian knew about _him_.

"We'll figure something out." Randall spoke as quietly as she did, the comment was more to himself than to her.

A sudden pang washed over him and, with a grimace, he put his hand to his head. It _still_ hurt. As he seethed a hushed groan, Tani snapped her attention back to him. "Well, we're not doing anything until we're sure you can walk and see straight at the same time. You've got a big enough bump on your head I wouldn't be surprised if you had a concussion."

"Thanks for the reassurance…" he mumbled sarcastically, setting aside his food so he could lay most of the way down.

She snorted, "You should know that the only sugar-coated thing you're ever gonna get from me is a peppermite stick." Setting aside her own, nearly finished meal, she took one of the blankets and began to hang them on pins strung along a thin cord around the roof of the van, covering the windows to darken the already dimmed space further. "Just get some more rest. You need it."

He wouldn't argue with her. If the continued pain in his skull wasn't convincing enough, how exhausted he still felt was. So he snatched a small bundle of fabric close to him and piled it under his head. He watched her settle back down and start eating again, this time in silence as the both would just glance over to one another from time to time, soaking in the mid-morning calm.


	4. The Start of a Plan

With all that had happened in such a short time, Randall hadn't fully understood the extent of his weariness until he woke up again in the van only to find that the sun had long set. An extra blanket had been thrown on top of him. A chorus of frogs and insects chirruping in the nearby swamp now replaced the somewhat distant thrum of cars and machinery. And Tani was nowhere to be seen. A surge of panic nearly took hold of him until he saw the small meal she had lain out: Two sealed containers, one with a strange salad of plants and vegetables both he could and couldn't recognize and the other with shredded pieces of what seemed to be a soft, broiled meat—a kind of fish, probably. There wasn't any note, but based on the preparations and faint steam collecting in the second container, Tani had likely stepped out and hadn't been gone for too long. After rummaging around in the dark for a jug of water, he quickly scarfed down the food—again surprising himself by his own poor state, this time with his ravenous appetite.

A part of him was still terrified at the fact that Tani had gone off somewhere, a little disheartened too that she had left without a word. The idea that she might vanish from his life a second time if he let her out of his sight plagued his mind, and the fact that she seemingly had no problem with it was disappointing. There was so much that they had missed over the years: He had thought that Tani would've wanted to stay by him and hear as much about the monster world as possible. He wanted to know more about her anyway, how she had managed to survive for all these years on her own.

Brows furrowed, he blinked down at his food. He didn't know what all it was, but it was good. Average—like a store-brand frozen dinner—but _good_. No, Tani hadn't just found a way to survive: She had made something for herself out here. Maybe, at this point, going home… just wouldn't even have any appeal to her anymore… She had said she wanted to go home, but she might still change her mind. To him, it was unthinkable, but to her—who had by now spent nearly a third of her life here—maybe there wasn't another option…

It was just one trickle of doubt Randall had to the many that seemed to flood his head. He couldn't do anything about it if _Tani_ decided she didn't want to risk going back, but what would he do then? _He_ didn't want to stay here. He knew he would never forgive himself if he left her here either. And even if they did find a way back to the monster world together, he then had to worry about getting caught by the CDA or the even more likely scenario of Tani finding out everything. She had hated him for becoming a ROR: What would she think of him for turning into a wanted criminal?

Clouds shifted across the sky, dotting out the moonlight and casting the van into an even deeper gloom. He took a long, deep breath. _It's not like either of us could go back right now anyway…_ He reminded himself. They would need time to set up a plan. He needed to lay low for a while, at least until the heat of things blew over. If it came to it, he could pass off his injuries being worse than they actually were and delay things further. He just needed to take things one step at a time.

Step one was, of course, forming the plan itself. He needed to fully convince Tani that they could escape back home and to somewhere safe without a flaw. They'd need to find a working door to get through and stake things out to make sure that the both of them could slip inside whatever factory they entered without getting caught; as they had talked about, sneaking on and off of a working scare floor would be far from easy. After that, then…

 _Then we'll see what happens next,_ he grimaced. Once they were in the monster world, he'd need to find out what happened to Sullivan and Wazowski. If Waternoose had taken them down, then no one would know about their plot. If Waternoose failed though, then chances were that his and the chairman's names were blasted across every paper and news show in Monstropolis—and it wouldn't shock him if the arachnid tossed him under the bus at that point either. If that happened, it would make things much, _much_ more complicated. Who knew: By the end of everything, he might still have to split away from Tani at some point—if only to keep her from learning the truth or because he couldn't face her with it.

Shoveling down the last of the greens—a hard crunch muffling through his teeth as he chewed apart what seemed to be a tough slice of a root—he urged his stiff body up, stretched, and crawled out of the van's back door. Even before his feet had touched the cold, wet earth, every part of him seemed to scream in rejection. A day lost without sleep, then the day following—beaten multiple times and on his legs for the entirety of it—and then today when he had slept for so long just to recover for the two days prior… His muscles were aching and stiff, and his skull began to throb again. Randall paused for a few seconds leaning against the door for support as he momentarily went blind while the blood rushed to his head.

He began to shout Tani's name, but quickly thought against it before he had uttered a sound. He was still paranoid about being spotted by any humans. He wasn't about to risk summoning any by being reckless. Looking across the mounds of garbage, he noted that they towered enough to cast heavy shadows across the otherwise flat strip of land: Strong, though deformed silhouettes against the thin moonlight—and in the distance a dim line of street lamps that could only be recognized by their pinkish glow. He didn't even know where to start looking. He just began to wander through the trash, careful not to step on anything: The last thing he wanted was to add a stabbed foot to the long list of injuries he already sported.

Luckily for him though, he didn't have to search very far. He froze in place at the sound of metal striking metal. Fear dissipated upon investigation when he turned the corner of one of the smaller piles of litter and squinted to see Tani standing over a fallen washing machine with a rusty, bent iron rod in her hands as an improvised crowbar. Again, she struck the edge of the washer with it, trying to pry away the plating.

"What are you doing?" he asked, curiosity winning over caution.

Only then did she notice him, her gaze snapping up as she huffed a soft breath. "You're awake," was all she replied to with at first. Dropping her arms to let them dangle beside her in a relaxed swing, she stretched her back and stood a little straighter. Just like he remembered it, her long, thin tail was curled around one of her thighs to keep it out of the way. "You know how humans always wear clothes?" she finally continued once she had caught her breath, "Not all of them remember to check their pockets."

"…And?" he pressed, shaking his head and folding his lower arms across his chest.

" _And_ sometimes cash will slip into the washer," she swung the rod upward, using it to point to something at a far-off destination only she knew of. "Not like I can walk into the nearest supermarket, but it's still good if I want anything from a vending machine."

That worried him… "You go into the town?" Randall stepped over to her side.

"Only in the dark hours 'til dawn," she reassured him, leaning back down and bracing the rod once more in both hands. "There are a few bars, but usually not much of a 'nightlife' here. The town's not too big."

As she got back to work trying to crack open the machine, he watched her quietly for a moment before squatting down to take a closer look. It was flipped over on its front, but the garbage stacked under it gave him room to slip his fingers under and turn it the other way. He couldn't at first—not without help—but after a small, confused cry of protest from Tani and a gruff murmur in return from him the two reptiles were able to jointly roll the washer around until its front side was facing up with its cracked door.

He felt around until his fingers clutched the levers on either side of the washer's bottom panel. It still took a minute of wrestling from something being jammed inside, but he was able to remove it easily enough—a faintly echoed clang sounding off his success. Inside were a few socks, a dust-like filth, and a handful of bills and coins.

Tani knelt beside him and stared for a long moment at the find. "Well… thank you for making me feel like I wasted a bunch of time for about six of the past ten years…"

" _You_ wear clothes," he fought off laughter, "I'd figure you would've known!"

"I never had _that_ many!" she countered, "My family always just went down to the laundromat! Almost _every_ monster just goes to the laundromat!"

It wasn't like she didn't have a point there. Clothes were pretty pointless to monsters overall, largely meant to cater to whatever taste of fashion suited them at the time or for intolerable weather. While machines like this were more commonplace in the human world, they were more of an unneeded household luxury in their own. Most towns still had at least one laundromat—MU's campus had one—but most people only really knew how to use a washer if they fooled with it often… or if they earned a habit of tinkering with whatever they could to pass the time like he did.

With an embarrassed pout, Tani began to gather the money and dump it into a small bag. His lips drawn back firmly to contain his humor, Randall helped her pick through the mess and clean off some of the filthier coins.

Midway through their task, she stopped. She sat up in thought—brows furrowed—blinked, then turned in place to stare at him with her arm resting on her knee. It took him a second to notice her change in demeanor, and when he did she only continued to stare. "What?"

"I just realized," she said, "we've never really bonded over anything normal, have we?"

The statement caught him off-guard. So much so that he fell into a momentary lapse of silence before finally erupting into the fit of laughter he'd been trying to contain. When she snorted and began to laugh with him, he only laughed harder. The feeling was so foreign to him… foreign, yet nostalgic. Thrilling, but also painful. He laughed because she was kind of right, and because it was so amazing to hear something so unexpected and off-the-cuff like that—so just like _her_.

"No," he snickered when he could finally get a word in, "No, I guess not…" Sure, they had studied, ate meals, and gone to games together, but that was just regular college stuff that had done mostly with their friends or when they were each busy thinking about other stuff—or they would often add some spin that kept things _abnormal_. Beyond that, their first meeting hadn't been normal. Their times alone together usually hadn't been normal. Even the days spent studying with Mike or later preparing for the Scare Games weren't exactly normal. And to this day, nothing about either of them had stayed very normal at all.

Randall wiped at his face only for his hand to pull away wet. He still couldn't stop himself from laughing, but he hardened his gaze at his fingertips as he brushed them together—as though not fully understanding why they felt so slick at first. He laughed some more, and as his eyes clouded over he wiped at them again only for his hands to draw back even wetter than before. He felt like he couldn't breathe and that something squeezed tightly at his chest. He didn't know why…

Seeing this, Tani stopped laughing. However, not knowing what was wrong, she could only watch him in silence. He stared back at her, and suddenly felt the urge to take her hand in one of his own. He held it like a lifeline until the last few chuckles slipped past his lips.

Then the both of them fell quiet, catching their breath. The only thing either of them knew to do was to let the moment pass. The silence was a blessing. Randall's feelings came and soon enough went, until finally he could wipe at his face again and his hands come back dry. A part of him felt empty after that, but in a sense that came with relief—like he had shed some huge burden that had clung to his back and weighed him down to the point of drowning. It was only one burden of many, but for right then, it was enough. It made him feel tired all over again…

But, of course, the moment couldn't last. As if the universe itself intended to sever the calm, a car alarm began to blare off in the distance. It wasn't close enough to make them worry, but it was enough to startle them. Both reptilians looked off in the direction of the noise before Tani's eyes flickered back at him and she offered him a faint smile. "Come on," she gave a pointed nod upward before rising to her feet, gently tugging at him to follow her, "Let me show you something."

He obeyed, allowing her to drag him off wherever she wanted. The pair shambled over to one of the much larger piles of garbage and began to climb it, feet finding strange platforms of squishy plastic bags, fragile cardboard, broken sheets of plywood, and other miscellaneous things. She pulled him all the way to its crest. It wasn't much of a sight—there was a tall, plank-lined fence with barbed wire marking the distant perimeter of the dump, and beyond that concrete buildings covered only by the bare minimum growth of trees that separated the swamp from the town—but it cut away the feeling of isolation their previous surroundings gave. Randall couldn't tell how many cars there were, but he could see the flashing lights of the one that's alarm had gone off. A dog had begun barking, and another two somewhere even further away followed suit. Even after someone eventually woke up to the noise and shut the car off, things didn't fully return to their previous calm for some time.

Tani stared at it all with a kind of tragic fondness. She had been right: It wasn't a very big town, not at least by what they could see from where they were anyway. None of the scattered buildings seemed higher than two stories and nothing lit the night besides the streetlights and the occasional passing vehicle. There didn't even seem to be a gas station too close by.

It must've been a bit of a walk to reach anything worthwhile in town from the dump. It brought back some of Randall's concerns and made him wonder if getting home would be even harder than he had initially thought. "Is there a daycare anywhere close?" he asked. They could likely break into one easily enough after closing hours and they could study the kids there to see if any of them had Scarers—given their ages, there could be a wealth of kids that did.

She hummed to herself in thought, "I don't know… I don't think I've seen one, but there is a school."

Given how likely the place would have security cameras it would be harder to scout out without getting caught, but it would have to do. Hopefully, he could just slip inside a classroom through a window in order to investigate. Little kids had a habit of drawing out anything they felt or saw: Plenty of monsters found brutish drawings of themselves on their assigned children's walls. Any kind of clue like that would be perfect. It was either that or staking out individual houses for the off chance they'd get lucky and find a Scarer.

"This weekend, let's check it out," he said. He hated even delaying things that much, but it gave time he needed to heal and for the worst of things to settle down in the monster world. "We'll be less likely to run into any humans if we wait until then."

Tani looked at him, uncertain. "You're still confident that we can make it back home in one piece, aren't you?"

"And where's your confidence?" Randall challenged, "You can't tell me that 'loud and proud' Tani Hartbrooke would give up on something this important." He played her game a bit, like how they used to. A friendly duel of words had always been good bait against her. "You want some 'normal' bonding experience? When we get back, one of the first things we'll do is go see a movie. Would that be normal enough for you?"

It worked. It barely took a second's consideration before a spark lit up in her face and she smiled, "Only if you're getting the snacks, sweetfangs." She cuffed him in the arm, a hand on her hip. "Just none of those human horror flicks for any cheap scares… I think I've already had my fill as it is."


End file.
